Austin Bakes for West

Austin Bakes is back!  Lots of bakeries, food bloggers, and home baking experts will be donating delicious desserts and baked goodies to help out the people in West, TX.
Come on out to the numerous locations around town and pick up a happy treat and make a donation to this worthy cause.
The bake sale will be from 10am to 2pm at these locations:

Chef Veggie will be at the Bee Caves Whole Foods location from noon until the sale ends.

I hope to have GF vegan macaroons and also Daiya cheese biscuits.
If you want to learn more about Austin Bakes and the fabulous fundraisers they have organized, supporting communities affected by the Bastrop wildfires and earthquake in Japan, please visit AustinBakes.com.

Happy 5th Year Chef Veggie

I started cooking professionally 5 years ago with my personal chef service - Chef Veggie.  I launched it on Earth Day 2008 and I'm happy to say that it has been a fun way to spend my time.
Thanks to all my clients, friends, family and fellow veggie foodies who have encouraged me and had fun eating the dishes I've made.

As a way to celebrate I giving a discount on my service in the month of May.
Mention "Earth Day" and get 25% off any service.

I'm also going to recommit to this blog space of mine and hope to post at least twice a month.
Also check out my food boards on Pinterest!  If you are wondering what to make for dinner tonight or just wanna see all the wonderful food I can make for you, check me out here!

Indian Feast 2011

This weekend is the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale and Austin's finest vegan bakers are participating.
I've participated a few times.  Here's what I've made before:

It will take place on Sunday, April 28th from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

This year we have expanded the bake sale to two locations :
 Monkeywrench Books (110 East North Loop Boulevard) and 
Counter Culture (2337 East Cesar Chavez).


Proceeds will benefit both Sunny Day Farms Animal Sanctuary and S.A.R.A Sanctuary.
If you are interested in being a volunteer baker, we have a sign up form.
Lastly, here is the facebook event page. Please invite your friends :)

Thanks again! One of the best ways to celebrate Earth Day everyday is to reduce your consumption of animal products and go veg!

Fall 2011 (Part 2)

We flew to Kauai on Thanksgiving Day!  What a great day to arrive in a tropical paradise.
We headed to the local grocery store, Times, and bought some tofu, tamari, nutritional yeast, and fresh herbs.  My husband's dad lives on the island so we get to stay at his house whenever we visit.  Less money for lodging and more for yummy food!  So we made our baked unturkey tofu and headed to out host's house in Kilauea.  At the party we met the owners of Verde, a Mexican restaurant in Kapaa.  I mentioned to them that I was vegan and they said they had lots of vegetarian options and that almost anything could be made vegan or gluten-free.  We promised to make it out there.
Here's what I had when I visited:   Veggie Stuffed Sopaipillas.

Veggie Stuffed Sopaipillas

I haven't had sopaipillas in 20 years!  I've been trying to stay away from fried food in general, but this was too yummy and different to pass up.

When we are on Kauai,  I love to go to the farmer's markets.  There are just some things you cannot get in the grocery stores that only show up there.  Things like breadfruit, starfruit, long beans, wing beans, drumsticks, green avocados etc.  It's also a great place to get flower arrangements, fresh coconut, good prices on papayas and mangos, Manoa lettuce, and tomatoes that are grown locally.

Local Starfruit

  I like to treat my in-laws with home-cooked meals.  All the tropical ingredients make me hungry just thinking about them.  My father-in-law's wife owns the spice company, Aloha Spice that incorporates local ingredients like Hawaiian red salt and organic ingredients.  She created this kiawe-wood smoked salt.  It adds great flavor to my scrambled tofu.

I made sure I spent lots of time at the beach to get a good blast of Vitamin D.  Most of us are Vitamin D deficient and I had this confirmed personally with a blood test this fall.  If you are not fair skinned you will need even more sun.  This vacation did me very good!

Snorkeling at Poipu

When I got back from vacation, I spent a good amount of time completing my course in Plant Based Nutrition from e-Cornell (Cornell University's online education department).  I have learned a lot more about creating healthy vegan meals and the science behind it.  I am so excited about the wonderful opportunity I have to share this with people in the New Year.
Here's a sample of what the course is like: Intro to Plant Based Nutrition

I am looking forward to a healthy and happy 2012!

Fall 2011 (Part 1)

Chef Veggie had such a busy fall and not much time to blog.  My hubby also went on 2 extended trips to Sweden so I was single mommying it for a bit. Here's some fun stuff I did this fall including a family vacation to both San Francisco and the island of Kauai (The Garden Isle of the Hawaiian Island chain).

In October, I participated in the Austin Bakes for Bastrop Bake sale.
I made some Gluten-Free Vegan Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins and
Caramelized Onion Biscuits made with Daiya.  That same day,  me and dear daughter went to a Vegan ATX Gathering of Tribes event at Pease Park.  It's so great to able to eat everything!

A Gathering of Goodness

I am looking forward to Texas Veg Fest at the end of March.

In late November, we had a fun few days in San Francisco before our trip to Kauai. There are so many vegan food choices that we were only able to go to a few places. When we got off the plane we went straight to Loving Hut in China Town. What a lovely lunch!

Then I got to spend the afternoon in Japantown (one of my favorite places without having to go to Japan).  The Kinokinuya Bookstore is such a great resource. Here's an old blogpost from our visit a few years ago. You can find books on macrobiotic, shojin-ryori (japanese temple food), sushi and bento.  I love to pick up the latest copy of Veggy Steady Go (Japan's vegetarian magazine).  Besides cookbooks, there are books on language, crafts, anime & manga, lifestyle etc.  After spending almost 2 hours there I headed to the Daiso!  This is a Japanese 100yen store stuck in San Francisco.  Almost everything is $1.50.  Last year I picked up some great stainless steel containers.  This year I went a little bento accessories crazy.  Oh Daiso please come to Texas!

Bento Crazy

Another morning we took quite a long bus ride from where we were staying to Herbivore off of Divisadero. That was one of the best breakfasts I have ever had in a restaurant.  Their "sausage" biscuit plate was so awesome!  The biscuit roll is filled with veggie sausage and it came with a side of hearty potatoes and a fresh spinach salad with perfectly sliced avocado.

"Sausage" Biscuit

 My husband was craving Italian and since we were near North Beach where almost every restaurant is an Italian one this would not be hard.  However, finding a dish without cheese can sometimes be difficult.  We looked at a bunch of window menus and was surprised to find that Volare Trattoria Cafe (now sing:  VOLARE...CANTARE!) had a vegan bruschetta and a vegan penne dish.  When we went is wasn't crowded and had decent service too.

Our last night there we met my brother and some friends at Saha.  This Yemenese Arabic restaurant has won many awards and is a great place to go for something different.  The decor is exotic with saffron fabric draping everywhere and you lounge against cushy pillows as you dine.
There are vegan dishes clearly labeled on the menu and the servers went out of their way to make sure I was happy. I had the Vegetarian Bastille but asked for it and the Knaffe dessert to be vegan. It was a surprise.  I could have sworn it had to have dairy in it.  It you want an opulent way to end your meal I would recommend it.

After a great visit to SF we got on our Hawaiian Airlines flight to Kauai. (see Part 2)

Vegan Birthday Cakes!

My daughter recently celebrated her 7th birthday.  I usually get excited about making the food, but baking a cake for a party gives me the chills.  There was one birthday where I stayed up until 3am trying 2 different times to make a beehive shaped cake for a bee themed party.  It turned out OK (see old blog post here) but I would rather not stress about it.
I decided to leave this year's cake to a professional.  So what kind of bakery was I looking for to make the cake?

I'm not into lard balloons (that's what I call those huge icing balloons on cakes you find at Costco and HEB).  The cake also needs to be eggless, so I decided a vegan cake would be awesome.  With all the food allergies out there, going vegan is a great way to knock a few allergens off your list.  I didn't want to call all around town to bakeries asking if they would make a vegan cake.
Who knows, it might be the first one they make. I did not want my vegan cake to look or taste like a Cake Wreck.

Sugar Tooth Bakery to the rescue!



I would have to say that Sugar Tooth Bakery would be your best bet for the most creative vegan cakes in Austin.  Meghan did a great job at responding to my emails and making great suggestions.
My request for natural food based colorings was no problem.
I wanted an ice pop (Popsicle is a brand) cake as that was the theme for this summer birthday party.
I thought lemon poppyseed would be a nice refreshing flavor.
The cake was moist and not overly sweet. The icing was also light and not super thick (who needs 1/2 and inch of icing anyway) with a light lemony flavor.  The yellow portion was colored with turmeric and the pink with fresh raspberry puree.
My daughter had an extra wooden musical stick and that was the ice pop stick.



I was very happy with the way the cake came out and also very happy to support a local business that is in tune with my lifestyle.  Thanks again Meghan for making such a "cool" cake.
We hope you enjoyed the little bite off the top!  ;)

Visit Sugar Tooth Bakery at http://www.sugartoothbakery.com/ or go by their bakery in the Community Renaissance Market off William Cannon and Westgate.

Happy 3rd Anniversary Chef Veggie

After a tumultuous Sunday with fires on my street, I'm very thankful and grateful to have been unharmed and still have a place to cook meals for my family.
If you would like to support some of my neighbors who lost their homes, there will be a bake sale/lemonade stand on Saturday, April 23rd at 8007 Landsman Drive Austin, TX 78736.
Jack Allen's Kitchen on HWY 71 is also having a benefit buffet (2:30pm to 4:30pm) on Saturday.   Please RSVP if you can on Jack Allen's Kitchen Facebook page.
You can also donate to the Red Cross.

Now on to my happy announcement.  In addition to it being Earth Day tomorrow, Chef Veggie is turning 3!  There are lots of fun events in town to help you celebrate Mother Earth and rediscover ways to have a more harmonious relationship with her.  Now that I'm in my fun toddler phase, I'm continuing to see growth and changes in my business.  I'm working on a cookbook that I hope will be in some finished form in the fall.   To celebrate, I also wanted to offer all new and existing clients 30% off any cookdate in May!
So if you wanted to try my services, this would be a great time.  Spring produce is so beautiful and fresh and great to get before more of the Texas heat comes in.  Is there anything you would like to see Chef Veggie do this year?

Here's a great Spring Salad Recipe to celebrate Mother Earth's bounty:

Spinach and Strawberry Salad with Texas Pecan Vinaigrette

1 lb organic baby spinach
1 pint organic/local strawberries, sliced

Dressing:
(makes about 3 cups)
1 cup Texas pecans (you can toast them but I like to leave them untoasted to get the most nutritional benefit)
Extra pecans for garnishing
1 cup filtered water
1/3 cup olive oil
1 TBSP maple syrup
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar (can also use apple cider if you prefer)
1 TBSP tamari/shoyu

Place all dressing ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.  Place spinach on individual plates, top with strawberries and dressing.  Garnish with extra pecans.

私たちはビスケットを食べみましょう

Let's eat biscuits!

That's what happens when your gluten-free baking adventures come up short due to very hot water!
Please recipe writers: mention how hot the water can be, otherwise if it's too hot, your cupcake batter cooks in the bowl.

Anyway, for Austin's Bake Sale for Japan here's what Chef Veggie brought....a known yummy standard she's made dozens of times - Scallion Biscuits.  A vegan version with Daiya and a cheese version with smoked Gouda.  These should balance out all the sugar out there today :)

Here's what I picked up with my donation!

Cupcakes from Sugar Skull and a chocoholic cookie from Vegan Lazy Smurf.

There will be more goodies out at the west location (The Shops at Mira Vista - 2785 Bee Cave Road, 78746) until 5pm, so if you haven't had a chance, stop by there now.

And a big thankyou to Kathryn - The Austin Gastronomist  and all the volunteers who made this all possible.